RSP Safety

Noise Risk Assessment

Do you need a noise risk assessment?

This will depend on how loud the noise is and how long people are exposed to it. As a simple guide you will probably need to have an assessment if any of the following apply:

Is the noise intrusive - like a busy street, a vacuum cleaner or a crowded restaurant - for most of the working day?

Do your employees have to raise their voices to carry out a normal conversation when about 2 m apart for at least part of the day?

Do your employees use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour each day?

Do you work in a noisy industry, eg construction, demolition or road repair; woodworking; plastics processing; engineering; textile manufacture; general fabrication; forging, pressing or stamping; paper or board making; canning or bottling; foundries?

Are there noises due to impacts (such as hammering, drop forging, pneumatic impact tools etc), explosive sources such as cartridge operated tools or detonators, or guns?

What do the regulations require you to do?

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (Noise Regulations 2005) require employers to prevent or reduce risks to health and safety from exposure to noise at work. The Regulations require you as an employer to:

Assess the risks to your employees from noise at work;

Reduce the noise exposure that produces those risks;

Provide your employees with hearing protection if you cannot reduce the noise exposure enough by using other methods;

Make sure the legal limits are not exceeded;

Provide your employees with information, instruction and training

Carry out health surveillance where there is a risk to health.

All our assessors have years of experience in assessments and in finding simple but effective solutions to reduce noise. We only use the most up to date equipment. You will receive a comprehensive report on our findings and recommendations for noise reduction and what standard of hearing protection to provide.

A word of advice; if you have a noisy environment and all you do is issue hearing protection, you may be leaving yourself open to both prosecution and claims for noise induced hearing loss. Invest in a risk assessment now.